THE AMISH COOK

BY GLORIA YODER

Isn’t life filled with curveballs and unexpected events?

We do seem to have our share of them around here. Today was an example of pleasant surprises mingled with quite unexpected events. Here’s the story:

Daniel’s brother John and his family planned to come to our house after our Sunday services to have lunch with us. And bless their kind hearts, they assured us that this time we won’t even have to make lunch.

Now, here we were on Sunday noon. John’s family was just ahead of us with their horse and buggy as we pedaled into our driveway, winding back and forth through the woods. As we crested the last hill where we could see the house Daniel’s astounded remark, “Whatever?” got my attention.

There in our driveway were several additional buggies that had been unhitched with the horses tied under the shade trees.

“Whatever could be going on?” My mind raced here and there. “We don’t have any birthdays this week, what could this all mean?”

“Don’t go into the house until I’ve tied up my horse,” John directed with a grin on his face. It was obvious to see he knew what was going on. Once we finally stepped inside the house it was buzzing with activity. Several girls were preparing lunch, some of the guys were washing dishes and some boys were in the living room relaxing and making themselves at home.

“Whatever does this mean?” we wanted to know.

“Just wait, you’ll find out,” was their answer.

It was exactly what Daniel and I enjoy. We love last minute, unannounced guests who aren’t afraid to be at home and relax in our house. But my inquisitive nature wasn’t satisfied.

“What IS going on?” I wanted to know.

The answer was the same: “Just go sit down and relax while we get lunch on,” they told me with triumphant looks on their faces.

Once lunch was ready, the 16 guests, all of whom were from our church gathered in the living room to break the news of all these strange activities.

My hilarious 20-year-old cousin Bethany was the one to fill in the missing blanks. She always seems to have her finger into everything, pulling off all kinds of pranks such as swiping a chocolate chip cookie off someone’s plate when they aren’t looking. With a big grin, she announced:         

“I’m the column reader who called you several weeks ago!”

“Oh no!” I gasped, as we all burst out laughing.

My brain quickly tried to call up the details. A supposed column reader called me expressing appreciation for my column.  Unknown to me it was my cousin, Bethany, who had a whole crew of others in the background listening to our conversation.

She had done an amazing job disguising her voice as she spoke with interest about our family. The “icing on the cake” was when I told her we were expecting a baby. Those in the background tried their best to muffle their laughter. Certainly they didn’t expect me to play the game so well and share our news that we had only told a few family and friends. They knew we wouldn’t be upset with them so they just enjoyed the joke to the fullest.

Right then and there they decided they’ll all have to get together to tell us what happened.

Now, here were, with a living room full of guests telling us about the most hilarious story. There was nothing to do but laugh with them.

“Here’s something for your baby,” Bethany said with an ornery grin, handing me a gift bag with newborn diapers, infant caps, and baby shampoo. And we all laughed harder and assured them it was well worth it.

Bethany informed us that Daniel has done his share of pranks and she decided it was time to turn the tables.

By this time, delicious pancake pizza was ready for us to dig in. Mmm, I haven’t had that for a long time. It certainly was a hit with everyone. A dessert of a homemade jelly roll and ice cream topped our tasty meal. After lunch we had an enjoyable time of playing games together and sharing more good laughs.

The pancake pizza is something you’ll want to try for your guests. While it is technically a breakfast recipe, it is good any time of day.  Use your favorite pancake batter recipe or a mix, and you can use your own sausage gravy recipe or use a “short-cut” and use store-bought.

Pancake pizza

1 1/2 cups pancake batter

6 eggs scrambled

3/4 cup shredded cheese

3 cups sausage gravy

1/4 pound bacon

 Heat oven to 400. Pour batter into greased and floured pie pan. Bake 10 minutes or until done, remove from oven. While pancake is baking, scramble eggs in a  skillet. Layer eggs and cheese on top of baked pancake. Make a sausage gravy and put on top of eggs and cheese. Fry and crumble the bacon and put on top of the gravy. Serve with or without maple syrup.